Critics seek overhaul of police conduct review

Rochester's system for reviewing misconduct allegations against police officers remains heavily tilted toward the police and needs a complete overhaul to create a truly civilian-managed review board, says a new report from some local civil rights organizations.

The department's internal affairs process "involves the police investigating themselves, and there is no independent review of police misconduct that calls officers to account for their actions or enacts appropriate discipline that would deter the misconduct."

For decades the city's system to weigh allegations about police conduct has been the focus of occasional criticism. There have been changes — most notably in 1992 when a civilian board was added to review police-investigated claims of misconduct — but the system has often been accused by critics of whitewashing legitimate conduct complaints.

The police and its union, meanwhile, contend that, if anything, the process gives too much power to the chief, who may be prone to public and political pressure when meting out discipline.

Often those encouraging a major dismantling of the current system believe "every officer is guilty," said Michael Mazzeo, the president of the Rochester Police Locust Club, the police union.

The report comes squarely from activists who have long maintained that police abuse is a significant problem in impoverished communities, and that minorities are often the victims.

"In many cases, even if a Black person's behavior could be legitimately questioned by the police, officers seem prone to harass and escalate rather than respectfully de-escalate situations," the report states.

The researchers and authors of the report — freelance grant writer Barbara Lacker-Ware and independent journalist Ted Forsyth — are members of the activist group, "Enough is Enough." A number of local civil rights groups, including the United Christian Leadership Ministry and the local chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union, helped draft the report and have endorsed it.

The report also comes at a time when the city administration and City Council are weighing how to improve community-police relations.

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"We're kind of looking at how you put together a civilian review board that would have some credibility," said City Councilman Adam McFadden, chair of council's Public Safety Committee.

The report is now in the hands of some City Council members. The backers of the report also hope to make presentations to other City Council members in coming weeks.

"We have it and we're reviewing it," said City Council President Loretta Scott, adding that she and her colleagues want a conduct review process "that ensures dignity, respect, transparency and accountability."

The Rev. Lewis Stewart, president of the United Christian Leadership Ministry, said the report has been two years in the making, and was initially undertaken by a coalition called the Campaign for Police Accountability.

"This is not anti-police but it's pro-public safety," Stewart said. "It's to help bridge the gap, given the suspicions and mistrust of the Rochester police."

Turbulent history

As the new report notes, the complaint review process has a turbulent history, dating back to the 1960s when it was created, stymied by a union lawsuit, then disbanded. In the 1970s and 1980s, new systems were crafted and tried — all with the police continuing the internal investigations and deciding discipline.

The most sweeping changes came in 1992, when the current Civilian Review Board, or CRB, was created by City Council. That board reviews the investigations and findings of internal police disciplinary probes, and makes its own decisions about whether the police findings were warranted.

The board, which has been managed by the mediation service the Center for Dispute Settlement since 1992, does not determine discipline. Ultimately, the police chief does.

"This system works for the bureaucratic institutions but not for the civilian complainants," the report states. "Regardless of which chief or mayor was in power, the system — and the results — remain essentially unchanged."

Utilizing years of publicly available reports from both the city and the Center for Dispute Settlement, or CDS, the researchers found that:

• From 2002 to 2015 only 2 percent of civilian allegations of "excessive force" have been "sustained" — or found to be likely true — by the department's police chief while 5 percent were upheld by the Civilian Review Board.

• From 2008 to 2013 the Rochester Police Department's Professional Standards Section (the PSS, which is the equivalent of an internal affairs division) did not uphold any civilian complaints of unnecessary use of force.

• During the 14 years the report analyzed, the "harshest penalties meted out to the police officers for sustained complaints of excessive use of force were six suspensions."

The process is too insular to ensure an adequate investigation, Lacker-Ware said in an interview.

"It's not independent of the Police Department," she said. "It rubber stamps the Police Department. ... It purposefully just relies on the investigation" of the Professional Standards section, or PSS.

Rochester Institute of Technology criminal justice professor John Klofas said the report, which he saw in an advance copy, does point out how limited the data can be to draw conclusions about the efficacy of the review system.

"They have a pretty good handle on the current system and the inability to find out much of what happened along the way," he said.

State law restricts some of what can be learned, prohibiting the release of personnel records of police officers, as well as some others in law enforcement and emergency fields, such as corrections officers and professional firefighters.

Those restrictions can make it difficult to determine whether a disciplinary model is functioning, Klofas said.

"There's not much you can do if there's not public transparency," he said.

The Center for Public Safety Initiatives at the Rochester Institute of Technology has been interviewing city residents about relations with police through a city-funded program. Those surveys have also shown continuing strains between law enforcement and communities that are largely home to African-Americans and Hispanics.

Strained relations

In the fall of 2016, a citizen-recorded video of the arrest of a city woman went viral locally. Activists claimed police used excessive force in the arrest, while police said the arrest appeared to be proper.

In the wake of that controversy, Mayor Lovely Warren ordered the Police Department to craft an "action plan" to foster better relations with residents. That plan is still in the works.

However, many conversations about relations return to the complaint review process. A system better trusted by the public would help sooth tensions, critics of the current process say.

"Over the years, many in the community have lost trust in the police and the police review process, which has been detrimental to the purported relationship-building activities conducted by the City and the RPD (Rochester Police Department)," the report states.

Complainants are often left in the dark about the outcome, Lacker-Ware said. They can find out if the complaint was "sustained" — the one outcome that says there is reliable proof of misconduct — but can't learn what happened to the officer if there is a finding of procedural lapses or excessive force.

"You never know what the discipline is, so why bother," she said.

For critics, the biggest problem with the current system — and the focus of decades-long complaints about the process — is the Police Department's crucial role in internal investigations and disciplinary decisions.

Other cities have established civilian review systems with independent investigators who have subpoena power.

The report notes that only 90 miles away, Syracuse's review system is a separate agency with its own budget. Last year the board upheld 17.5 percent of excessive force complaints. In the three previous years, the "sustained" rate with excessive force allegations in Syracuse was 24 percent, 41 percent, and 23 percent — all significantly higher than Rochester's rate.

The report recommends a system — a Police Accountability Board — funded by the city. The board would have its own administrative staff, its own investigators and subpoena power.

The city police would still have its own internal affairs department, but the Police Accountability Board would be able to also conduct its own investigations into alleged misconduct. The chief would still decide discipline, but would rely on a discipline "matrix" that determines the response to different lapses in procedure and protocol.

The police union, the chief and the board would review the "matrix" yearly for possible changes.

City Council will decide whether the current system needs a tweak or a complete dismantling. McFadden said he does want a civilian board with more independence.

"I think we're really leaning toward a civilian review board that has subpoena power," he said. The new report may provide a model for some discussion, but just one model among many possibilities, he said.

Locust Club President Mazzeo said the union has its own beefs with the current system — namely the disciplinary power invested with the chief.

"If they want a civilian review (then) move to an arbitrated discipline that's putting the hearing at the end in the hands of a neutral arbitrator," Mazzeo said.

And, while some civilian boards may take more severe disciplinary action against officers, others don't, Mazzeo said.

For instance, a recent study in Los Angeles showed that civilian members of city disciplinary boards are "consistently more lenient" than law enforcement officers who also participate on the review boards. The civilians more frequently opt "to acquit officers or dole out lesser punishment," the Los Angeles Times reported in January.

Klofas noted that the Obama administration tackled police-community relations, culminating in a report with recommendations — not mandates — for police departments.